Sunday, June 21, 2009
Easy Adjustment to New York
Although it must have been extremely hard to move from Haiti to New York, Sophie seems to be adjusting unbelievably well so far. She clearly saw Tante Atie as a mother figure before she left because of the card that she made her on mother's day. When her real mother finally greets her at the airport, their relationship was a little bit stifled at first but surprisingly natural after a few days. I think what made Sophie feel so comfortable was the fact that her mother needed her so badly. When her mother was constantly having horrific nightmares, she sounted on Sophie to wake her up. I think this did multiple things for Sophie. For one, it seperated her mother from her Tante Atie. It took away all the pressure that she was feeling before leaving that her mother would somehow replace Tanta Atie. After her mother showed her all of her unique vulnerabilities, this difference couldn't be more stark. Another thing that it did, was create the type of mother-daughter relationship in which they both rely upon each other. This relationship of exuality works out well for Sophie while she is adjusting but not so well for her mother when she wants to come down hard on the rules. As Sophie continues to grow up, it becomes harder and harder for her mother to play the disciplinarian.
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As Ben had mentioned, it is easy to get adjusted to the life in New York, and Sophie gets closer and closer to her mother Martine as time passes.
ReplyDeleteOnce when they are the old woman’s house they start talking more intensely and more about private secrets. Martine starts building up a bridge so that Sophie can fully trust her by telling her how she and Marc for the first time. Marc was Martine’s attorney and they became friends, thus also helped her bringing Sophie to her.
Furthermore, Martine tells Sophie how she was raped when she was a young girl with an age of sixteen, and thus became pregnant with Sophie. Another story she tells Sophie is how her own mother would test her’s and her sister Atie’s vaginas in order to check for their virginity before she got raped and got pregnant. For this reason, Martine wants to know whether Sophie is interested in a boy or not, and Sophie declines it right away. In my opinion, I do not think that 12-year-old girls have boys in their minds to worry and care about boys, and building a relationship with them.